Gate Lodge, Glengalliagh Hall, 22 Upper Galliagh Road, Londonderry, BT48 8LW

Gate Lodge at Glengalliagh Hall

A lively late Victorian gate lodge in Arts and Crafts style, dating from around 1880–1899, designed by architect R. Eccles Buchanan. The building is well detailed with impressive gable timber framing and panelling. The contrast between timber framing painted black and colour-washed roughcast rendering is particularly pleasing.

The lodge is a single-storey structure with multiple gables, roughcast walls colour-washed with decorative panelled gables, and slated roofs. It sits beside substantial gate piers and gates. The steeply pitched roofs give the lodge a greater impression of size than it actually possesses.

The entrance elevation, which runs parallel to the avenue, features a projecting gabled porch with its axis following that of the main roof. The door is boarded up, as are all windows. A room projects forward from the main wall, gabled, with a pair of single sash windows centred on the wall. On the flanking wall, a narrow window of equal height originally allowed observation of approaching vehicles or carriages.

The gable timber panelling comprises a blank arcade of arched panels with diagonal quatrefoils above. The bargeboard is straight and moulded. The north side displays a pair of single sash windows close together. Within the gable is vigorous half-timbered work comprising horizontals, verticals, and curvy diagonals. The barges have good overhang, meeting in a finial and punctuated with protruding wedges. The barge tie beam receives additional support from moulded timber corbels. The rear elevation has no windows. The south elevation, facing up the avenue, has two gables, each treated in half-timbered work similar to the north-facing gable, with diagonal curving timbers in the top halves.

The roofs are slated in dark asbestos slates. A Tudor-style brick chimney is centred on the ridge, appearing above as a rendered, white colour-washed piece before changing to two diagonal stacks in facing brick.

The lodge incorporates a former outside toilet behind the projecting porch.

The main entrance consists of three rockfaced limestone piers containing a pedestrian gate next to the lodge and carriage gates. The piers are square with flat pyramidal copings. From one pier, a curved screen wall runs to Upper Galliagh Road, changing to a concrete block wall that bounds the grounds on the east side. The cast iron gates, painted black, are decorated with spiky fleur-de-lis motifs coloured in gold.

The gates, piers, and screen wall may date from the original house of circa 1846. The gate lodge is likely contemporaneous with the main house and exhibits characteristics typical of R. E. Buchanan's work. Another Londonderry architect working in a similar style was A. Forman Buchanan, active from 1890 to 1925.

The building has been vacant for several years. The listing extent covers the gate lodge, gates, pillars, and walls.